The Cuban triple jumper nationalized Italian Andy Díaz made history this Saturday in Florence by winning the Absolute National Championship of Italy with a jump of 17.87 meters, a mark that simultaneously broke the Italian national record, the athlete's personal best, and the best mark in the world for the year in the specialty.
The athlete from Havana, born on December 25, 1995, competed in the Italian Absolute Championships with a dominant performance starting from the first jump, recording valid distances of 17.87 meters on his first attempt and 17.81 meters on his third.
The podium was completed by Simone Biassuti (17.32 m) and Andrea Dallavalle (16.86 m), both over half a meter behind the winner.
Italy's previous triple jump record was 17.80 meters, also held by Díaz, set on March 21, 2025, in Nanjing during the World Indoor Championships. With this jump on Saturday, the athlete improved that record by seven centimeters.
The best world record of the year up to that point also belonged to him: the 17.72 meters he achieved on July 3, 2026, in Barletta, Italy. In Florence, he surpassed it by a wide margin.
Díaz approaches the legendary barrier of 18 meters, whose absolute world record belongs to the British Jonathan Edwards with 18.29 meters, a height achieved by very few athletes in the history of the discipline.
The jumper, trained by the legendary Italian triple jumper Fabrizio Donato, left Cuba in 2021 during the preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games and settled in Livorno. He obtained Italian citizenship in February 2023 for his sporting merits and will be able to compete internationally for Italy starting from August 1, 2024, after fulfilling the waiting period required by World Athletics.
Since then, his achievements have continued to grow. He won the Olympic bronze in Paris 2024 with a distance of 17.64 meters, in a historic final where all three medalists were of Cuban origin: Jordan Díaz (gold, Spain), Pedro Pablo Pichardo (silver, Portugal), and Andy Díaz himself (bronze, Italy).
In addition to that Olympic bronze, he added the European indoor crown in Apeldoorn 2025 and two consecutive indoor world titles: Nanjing 2025 and Toruń 2026.
Florencia's performance consolidates Díaz as one of the most dominant triple jumpers in the world and as a representative of the so-called Cuban school of triple jump, whose main representatives now compete under European flags after leaving the island.
According to the specialized portal Swing Completo, "his arrival in Italy opened new doors for the athlete, and he did not waste the opportunity," and his "explosiveness, speed, and technique have positioned him as one of the athletes with the greatest potential to approach the 18-meter barrier."
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